Last week was a great week for me for mirror gazing. Perhaps the phase of the moon has had more impact than I normally attribute to it.

I had a particularly interesting experience on Wednesday night. Instantly, as soon as I sat down in front of my mirror I began to see one family member after another, my father, my mother, both grandmothers, aunts, uncles, the whole gang was there, one after another, it felt kind of like they were all at a party. They probably all showed up because throughout the Christmas holidays I spent many hours going through old photographs and scanning them to send copies to my brothers and my children, so obviously I had been thinking of all of them a great deal.

Oddly, their faces were not clear. I could see their outlines, it was clear to me who they were, I could hear their voices, and yet the actual faces were fuzzy and out of focus. I still haven’t figured out what the significance of that was, but the fascinating part was what they said to me. One after another they all said something along the lines of “relax,” “have fun,” “don’t take it so seriously,” “it’s all just a game.”

Now I have been frustrated lately because usually at this time of year I am sitting on a warm beach somewhere, but this year for some reason, a bunch of events have taken place that have resulted in us still being in Toronto. The cold, snowy, dark days do not make me happy and so I have been feeling a bit sorry for myself and wondering how to resolve this situation and get myself somewhere warm. So that night when I sat down in front of my mirror this is what I had been asking the universe for help with.

My initial reaction to their comments was “well that’s fine for you to say, you are not the one having to trudge through snow.” But then I understood that they were telling me that everything would resolve itself, and things would work out fine. The session ended and I went to bed. That wasn’t when the “aha” moment occurred, it happened the next morning when I was working at my computer.

I was working on editing an old book by New Thought writer William Walker Atkinson and he was talking about how our lives, our time here on earth, is like kindergarten, and that we learn by playing. He also said that we have to understand that there are enough toys for everyone and that we do not have to jealously hang on to old worn out toys, that we can let them go and pick up new toys to play with. At that moment I understood what my loved ones were saying to me. They were saying to me, don’t take myself, my career, and my stuff so seriously, it is time for me to play with a different toy, to have a new experience, not the same experience over and over again, have fun, to relax and know that eventually everyone graduates from kindergarten into the first grade, in the meantime I should just enjoy kindergarten.